Walk with us!
We are less than 5 months away from this year’s Light the Night walk. This year is the second year that Team Gary’s Guardian Angel’s will be walking. Unfortunately this year we are walking in memory of Gary and Mikey and I will be carrying the lit up gold balloon that symbolizes those that we lost leukemia and lymphoma. There are a few things that makes this year’s walk THAT much more special in my book.
#1 -Gary is one of this year’s Honored Heroes. 
What an honor for our family, he’d never expect something like that in a million years.
#2 – At last year’s walk one of Gary’s coworkers, Gretchen, who raised over $1k in a matter of a week got a medal for having raised so much money. Well I happened to be standing right next to Gary with the camera turned on just as she was giving her medal to him because he was such an inspiration to her. That night I told Gary that next year (now this year) I will be up on stage getting my medal too because I will raise over $1k just myself. I WILL!!!!
So here I am soliciting people to walk with us at this year’s event. It’ll be on November 13th, at Huzienga Park in Ft. Lauderdale.
If you’d like to join our team you can by clicking HERE.
If you can’t join us for whatever reason but would like to help me get to my $1k goal you can do so by navigating to my personal page or by clicking HERE
Thank you! With your help we can get the money that researchers need to come up with a cure for blood cancers so that no other families have to be broken apart like mine has been.
Please take action!
Act Now – Urge Your Representatives to Support Increased Cancer Research Funding
The president’s recently released budget proposal includes increases of just 3.2 percent for NIH and 3.16 percent for NCI. Advocates are urged to contact their legislators and urge them to increase both NIH and NCI’s budget by 13.5 percent; increases of $4.2 billion for NIH and $691 million for NCI. Please contact your elected official now!
As most of my readers already know, the NIH is responsible for finally giving Gary an accurate diagnosis AND he also participated in a clinical trial at the NIH since his form of lymphoma is so very rare. It takes places like the NIH, that solely rely on government funding, to help get us closer to a cure for cancer.
The NIH is a fabulous place with some very talented individuals that know their shit! Even though Gary is no longer with us I feel the need to help advocate for proper funding for the NIH.
I urge all of my readers to click on the link below. It’ll take you to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s website and you just need to plug in some contact info in a form and they’ll take care of notifying your representatives. It’s THAT easy.
An Honored Hero!
This afternoon, much to my surprise, I got an email from Jill over at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s South Florida Chapter asking me how I felt about having Gary as one of their Honored Hero’s for the 2010 Light the Night Walks. I could not believe I was being asked this. What an HONOR to even be asked about this. I immediately wrote back and told her that on behalf of my family we’d be honored for Gary to be one of their Honored Hero’s this year. I STILL can’t believe I was asked this but I have the email as proof
Not in a million years would Gary ever think that he’d be considered an Honored Hero for anything let alone something cancer related. Just the thought that the local chapter thought of Gary just amazes me and I’m just speechless and so very humbled by it. Such an amazing honor for Gary and shoot for Mikey and I too to be apart of. Mikey will be barely 3 years old at this year’s walks and I hope he’ll somehow remember everything about it because this year will be a much different walk for us. This year instead of Gary walking with us with his white survivor balloon, survivor t-shirt, and his big ole walking stick we’ll be walking for him holding his lit up gold balloon. *sigh* It won’t be an easy walk to do at all but I know Gary will be there with us in spirit and he’ll be smiling down and Mikey and me for continuing the fight for him.
I’m the team captain of 2 teams this year. One for the Miami walk and another for the Ft. Lauderdale walk. When I posted earlier about how I really felt this was my mission in life, I’m serious about it. It’s my mission to help the LLS raise as much money as possible to help bring a cure to blood cancers.
So if you can spare some of your hard-earned money please do not hesitate to donate towards a FANTASTIC cause. Here are the links to my two personal pages Miami Walk and Ft. Lauderdale Walk. You can donate to either one of my donation pages. Really every little bit helps us out.
Help me meet my goal of $1000 so that I can get my medal like I promised Gary I would at last year’s walk 
Light the Night 2009 a night to remember
Our first ever Light the Night walk was the most amazing experience ever. Our fabulous team, Gary’s Guardian Angels, ended up raising over $3k for the LLS! That is a heck of a lot more than my initial goal of $1000 too That is $3k more that can go towards research and helping out patients that they didn’t have before we raised it. For us research is HUGE just because Gary’s form of lymphoma (Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma) is soooooooo very rare. Not many people have it and of those not many participate in clinical trials, which makes research very very precious. So if the money we’ve raise can help out with that at all then that’s FABULOUS!
We had a kick ass banner that had a collage of pictures from Gary’s chemo treatments that filled in each letter of his name. I thought it kicked ass even if it didn’t with the banner contest
Here’s our fabulous banner:
Here is one of my favorite pictures from the night. It was taken after we first arrived. Mikey wanted to play airplane with daddy and I just so happened to get a pic of Mikey going in for a big hug with his daddy and more importantly you can see Gary’s fancy shmancy Survivor shirt.
One of the most touching moments of the night was witnessing something between Gary and his coworker, Gretchen. A little backstory, Gretchen has been very involved with the LLS for years. Her mom died of leukemia several years back. Well, she has been a huge supporter of Gary’s fight against lymphoma. She managed to raise over $1k in a matter of just 4 days for the walk! Talk about a kick ass fundraiser. I surely need to get tips from her for next year Well if you raise over $1k you get a fancy Bright Lights t-shirt and a medal. Well she got her medal and came straight to Gary to present the medal to him. I was standing right there and had the camera around my neck and snapped this photo. The look on his face says it all, he was completely in shock and humbled by her fabulous gesture.
I don’t think that’s a moment that any of us will ever forget.
All in all the night was amazing. It’s really hard to describe in words how awesome it is to see all of these people with red (for supporters), white (for survivors), and gold balloons (for walking in memory of). But to see the sea of balloons build up as the walk starts, even as windy as it was, its just absolutely breathtaking. To be around soooooo many others that feel just as strongly about coming closer to a cure for blood cancers its just something that is so absolutely amazing and I am so grateful to have taken part in such an awesome event.
Here is a quick team pic as we started off on the walk, its not everyone, but it was the best we were gonna do at the time.
I’m already excited for the 2010 walk, you better believe the Zullo’s will be making this is regular event for our family, and we willl be beating this year’s fundraised amount too!!!!
Support Light the Night Pub Crawl Style
Big Thanks to Eric for replying to a post of mine about the event the Ft. Lauderdale Pub Crawl is hosting this Saturday the 29th starting at 9pm in support of Light the Night!!!!
The event starts at America’s Backyard in downtown Ft. Lauderdale. Spread the word and come out to support the LLS!
I wish I could be there but I’ll be busy packing for our trip back up to DC for round #5!
If you haven’t joined our LNT team yet please come by and join us for our kick ass team that will be walking on November 7th.
Join us and help us raise money to cure Leukemia and Lymphoma!!!!!
A recent widow and single mom doing my best to survive on my own.
Last year I told Gary that I'd raise $1k at the 2010 walk, please help me reach my goal. This year Gary is one of the Honored Heroes for the walk so its even extra special to me. :) Just click on the Sponsor Me image to be taken to my fundraising page. Thank you!!!
Help me get to my 1st Half Marathon in Walt Disney World where I will run in memory of Gary :)
